Full Stack

Origin Quantum

Superconducting Private Private Hefei, China
Founded 2017 originqc.com.cn ↗

Overview

Origin Quantum (本源量子) is China's leading full-stack quantum computing company, founded in 2017 as a spinout from the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) and the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Hefei. The company designs, fabricates, and operates superconducting quantum processors under the 'Wukong' (悟空) brand name, while simultaneously developing the full hardware-software stack required to deliver usable quantum computing: custom cryogenic measurement-and-control electronics, a quantum operating system (Origin Pilot), EDA tools, and the QPanda/VQNet software development kits. This vertical integration strategy is deliberate — it reflects both a commercial ambition to be China's end-to-end quantum supplier and a strategic necessity given U.S. export controls that restrict access to foreign quantum components and tooling. Origin Quantum is widely regarded as China's designated national champion in the quantum computing sector, with deep institutional backing from state-funded research bodies and government procurement channels.

The company's commercial strategy rests on three pillars: domestic hardware supply to Chinese government agencies, state-owned enterprises, and universities; cloud-based access to its quantum processors through the Origin Quantum Cloud platform (accessible internationally, including to users outside China); and, increasingly, export sales of complete quantum computing systems. In May 2026, Origin Quantum claimed China's first successful export and commercial sale of a domestically produced quantum computing system — the Wukong-180 — a milestone with significant geopolitical as well as commercial implications. Concurrently, the company is pursuing institutional partnerships in international academic hubs, most recently signing an agreement with City University of Hong Kong to establish a joint Advanced Computing Centre, a move that analysts have connected to Hong Kong's role as a gateway for Chinese quantum firms navigating U.S. sanctions.

Origin Quantum's most current flagship system is the Wukong-180, a 180-qubit fourth-generation superconducting quantum computer launched in May 2026. This follows the earlier Wukong (悟空) 72-qubit third-generation system launched in January 2024. The company has recently added an 'Origin Brain' platform that integrates quantum hardware with AI workloads, and a 'smart computation' layer designed to improve classical-quantum hybrid usability. Independent performance benchmarks for the Wukong-180 have not yet been published, which limits external assessment of where the system sits relative to international competitors. No peer-reviewed gate fidelity, coherence time, or quantum volume data for the 180-qubit system has been released as of this writing.

In the global competitive landscape, Origin Quantum occupies a structurally unique position: it is not competing head-to-head with IBM or Google for enterprise customers in Western markets, but is instead the primary beneficiary of China's substantial state investment in quantum computing and the de facto supplier for Chinese sovereign quantum infrastructure. Its nearest Chinese competitors — SpinQ, QuantumCTek (focused on quantum communication rather than computing), and academic groups at Zhejiang University and Peking University — do not match its full-stack depth or state backing. Internationally, its superconducting approach puts it nominally in the same technology class as IBM, Google, and Rigetti, but qubit quality metrics and error correction maturity remain opaque and likely lag Western leaders. The IPO preparation reportedly underway would represent China's first major quantum computing public listing.

Leadership

Guo Guoping (郭国平)
Co-Founder and Chief Scientist

Professor at USTC and member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guo Guoping has spent decades researching solid-state quantum computing and semiconductor spin qubits, and is the principal scientific architect of Origin Quantum's superconducting hardware program.

Kong Weicheng (孔伟成)
Co-Founder and CEO

Kong Weicheng co-founded Origin Quantum alongside Guo Guoping and leads the company's commercialization and business development strategy, including government relations and the push toward export sales.

He Yu (何宇)
Co-Founder

One of the founding team members with roots in the USTC quantum research group, contributing to early hardware and system architecture development at Origin Quantum.

Technology

Origin Quantum builds superconducting transmon-style qubit processors fabricated at its own facility in Hefei — a critical differentiator given export control constraints on semiconductor equipment. The company has pursued aggressive qubit scaling from its first-generation 6-qubit system (2020) through the current Wukong-180 at 180 qubits (2026), roughly doubling qubit count per generation over a four-to-five year span. Unlike Western competitors who often rely on third-party control electronics, Origin Quantum has developed its own measurement-and-control (M&C) hardware stack, which it claims reduces system latency and improves coherence management, and which it also sells separately as a commercial product.

The software layer is equally emphasized. QPanda (Quantum Programming Architecture for NISQ-Device Applications) is Origin Quantum's open-source quantum programming framework, and QPanda3 is the current iteration used in developer competitions and cloud integration. VQNet is a variational quantum-classical neural network framework positioned for hybrid quantum-AI workloads. The 'Origin Brain' platform, announced in April 2026, represents the company's attempt to position its quantum hardware as a component in AI computing pipelines — an area where technical depth is currently unclear but market positioning is clearly responsive to China's intense national focus on AI infrastructure. A quantum operating system branded 'Origin Pilot' manages hardware abstraction and job scheduling on physical systems.

Regarding specific performance metrics for the Wukong-180: as of May 2026, no independent benchmarks, peer-reviewed gate fidelity figures, or coherence time data have been published for this system. For the preceding Wukong 72-qubit system (launched January 2024), Origin Quantum reported two-qubit gate fidelities in the range of approximately 99.5% for best-performing qubit pairs under its own testing, though these figures have not been independently validated. Quantum volume and circuit layer operations per second (CLOPS) figures have not been publicly disclosed. The company's fabrication and packaging processes are domestically sourced, which is strategically important but may impose quality constraints compared to facilities using leading-edge Western lithography and materials supply chains.

Key Systems

Performance Highlights

Financials

Origin Quantum is privately held as of mid-2026, with no public revenue figures, audited financials, or confirmed valuation disclosed. The company has raised multiple rounds of venture and strategic funding since its 2017 founding, with investors including state-backed funds aligned with Anhui Province and Hefei's local government, as well as institutional investors including CICC Capital. Total funding raised is estimated at several hundred million RMB across multiple rounds through 2023-2024, though precise cumulative figures have not been publicly confirmed. The company is reportedly preparing for a domestic A-share IPO on a Chinese stock exchange, which would make it the first major pure-play quantum computing company to list on a Chinese exchange, but no formal filing or timeline has been confirmed as of this writing.

Revenue is primarily derived from government and institutional procurement contracts — sales of quantum computing systems to Chinese universities, research institutes, and state-owned enterprises — supplemented by cloud access fees and, now, the beginnings of export hardware sales. The size of these revenue streams is not disclosed. The company's valuation in its most recent private round has not been publicly reported; industry estimates place it in the range of several billion RMB, but these are speculative. Given the company's heavy state backing and alignment with China's national quantum strategy, financial distress in the near term appears unlikely regardless of commercial revenue trajectory, but the path to profitability on commercial terms remains opaque.

The M&C electronics business provides a secondary revenue stream that is arguably more near-term defensible than quantum processor sales, as these instruments are sold to other research groups and quantum companies. The reported export sale of the Wukong-180 system — if it represents a full hardware sale rather than a partnership arrangement — would be a meaningful commercial revenue event, though contract value has not been disclosed.

Key Figures

Milestones

May 2026
Launched Wukong-180, a 180-qubit fourth-generation superconducting quantum computer, and claimed China's first export commercial sale of a domestically produced quantum computing system.

Doubles the qubit count of the previous flagship system in approximately 28 months. The export sale claim, if verified, represents a geopolitical and commercial milestone — Chinese quantum hardware reaching international commercial markets for the first time — and opens a revenue channel previously unavailable.

May 2026
Signed agreement with City University of Hong Kong to establish a joint Advanced Computing Centre.

Extends Origin Quantum's institutional footprint into Hong Kong, a jurisdiction with international financial and academic connectivity. Analysts have noted the strategic dimension: Hong Kong serves as a potential conduit for Chinese quantum technology into global markets as U.S. export controls tighten around direct mainland China engagement.

April 2026
Announced Origin Brain platform integrating Wukong quantum hardware with AI computing workloads; added 'smart computation' layer to Wukong systems.

Positions Origin Quantum within China's dominant AI infrastructure investment narrative, potentially broadening addressable market and government procurement appeal beyond pure quantum research budgets. Technical depth of the integration remains unverified.

April 2026
USTC and Origin Quantum published work on a memory-efficient QRAM simulator requiring under 1 GB of classical memory.

Demonstrates continued active collaboration with USTC on foundational software tools. QRAM is a long-term research priority for fault-tolerant quantum algorithms; this is an incremental but credible research contribution.

January 2024
Launched Wukong (悟空), a 72-qubit third-generation superconducting quantum computer, and opened the system to global users via cloud platform.

Marked Origin Quantum's entry into the 72-qubit class, directly comparable in qubit count (though not necessarily in quality) to IBM's earlier Eagle processor. Opening global cloud access was a deliberate signal of international commercial ambition and a response to Western quantum cloud platforms.

2023
Completed development and commercialization of second-generation proprietary measurement-and-control electronics hardware.

Establishing domestic M&C electronics capability is strategically critical given U.S. export controls on precision electronics. This product line also generates independent revenue from other quantum research groups and institutions.

2022-2023
Secured additional strategic funding rounds from state-aligned investors including Hefei government-linked funds.

Confirmed continued state financial commitment to Origin Quantum as China's primary superconducting quantum computing champion, providing runway independent of commercial revenue performance.

Roadmap

Origin Quantum has not published a detailed public roadmap with the specificity of IBM's quantum development roadmap or Google's announced milestones, which is consistent with Chinese tech company norms around proprietary disclosure. Based on public statements from chief scientist Guo Guoping and company announcements, the trajectory has been consistent hardware scaling: from 6 qubits (2020) to 24 qubits (2021) to 72 qubits (2024) to 180 qubits (2026), approximately doubling qubit count every 12-18 months. If this pace is maintained, a system in the 300-500 qubit range could be anticipated within 18-24 months, though no specific target or timeline has been officially stated.

On the software and error correction front, Origin Quantum has signaled intentions to develop quantum error correction capabilities, which Guo Guoping has publicly acknowledged as the central challenge before fault-tolerant quantum computing becomes practical. However, unlike IBM (which has published specific logical qubit milestones) or Google (which demonstrated below-threshold error correction in December 2023), Origin Quantum has not disclosed a concrete error correction roadmap, target logical qubit counts, or timescales. The 'Origin Brain' AI integration and 'smart computation' layer announcements in April-May 2026 suggest near-term commercial strategy is focused on hybrid classical-quantum workloads rather than fault-tolerant applications, which is commercially rational given current NISQ-era hardware.

The IPO preparation reportedly underway would, if executed, represent a major commercial milestone. A successful public listing would provide capital for expanded fabrication capacity, R&D acceleration, and potentially international market development. Given Chinese capital market conditions and regulatory dynamics, timing remains highly uncertain. The CityUHK partnership and Wukong-180 export sale suggest the company is deliberately building an international commercial track record ahead of any public offering.

Competitive Position

Origin Quantum occupies a structurally protected position within China that has no close parallel among Western quantum companies. It is effectively the state-designated national champion for superconducting quantum computing, which means its primary market — Chinese government agencies, state enterprises, and research institutions — is substantially insulated from international competition by procurement policy, data sovereignty requirements, and export control regimes that cut both ways. No Western quantum company can readily sell into China's sensitive quantum infrastructure, and Origin Quantum has no serious domestic rival with comparable full-stack capabilities. SpinQ offers smaller, lower-cost educational quantum systems; QuantumCTek focuses on quantum key distribution rather than computing; and while academic groups at Zhejiang University and elsewhere produce strong research, they are not commercial hardware vendors.

Against international benchmarks, the picture is more challenging. IBM's Heron processor and its 1,000+ qubit Condor system, Google's Willow processor (which demonstrated below-threshold quantum error correction in late 2024), and IonQ's trapped-ion systems represent meaningfully more mature or better-validated quantum hardware on publicly available performance metrics. Origin Quantum's Wukong-180, while reaching 180 qubits, has not published comparable gate fidelity, coherence time, or error correction data. The absence of peer-reviewed benchmarks makes direct comparison impossible, but the gap in published quality metrics is itself a competitive signal. Rigetti Computing, which Origin Quantum most closely resembles in its superconducting full-stack approach, trades at a fraction of expected Origin Quantum valuations — a useful reference point for public market expectations.

The company's defensible advantages are: deep state support and preferential access to China's large domestic market; domestic fabrication capability that is export-control-proof; and genuine full-stack integration depth that gives it control over the entire system from qubit to cloud API. Its vulnerabilities are: opaque performance benchmarks that may conceal quality gaps versus Western leaders; dependence on state procurement that could shift with policy priorities; potential technology distance from leading-edge fault-tolerant quantum computing developments that are increasingly centered in the U.S. and Europe; and the geopolitical risk that its export ambitions will be constrained by the same dynamics that motivate its domestic self-sufficiency strategy.

Risks & Opportunities

Key Risks

  • Benchmark opacity: No independent peer-reviewed performance data (gate fidelity, coherence time, quantum volume) for the Wukong-180 or predecessors has been published, making it impossible to confirm whether Origin Quantum's hardware quality is competitive with IBM, Google, or even Rigetti at equivalent qubit counts. If quality metrics lag significantly, the company's commercial viability outside captive state markets is limited.
  • Geopolitical and export control escalation: U.S. and allied export controls on semiconductors, cryogenic equipment, and precision electronics may tighten further, potentially constraining Origin Quantum's access to materials and fabrication tools needed to advance to next-generation systems, despite its domestic supply chain build-out.
  • State dependency concentration risk: A substantial portion of revenue appears to flow from Chinese government and state-enterprise procurement. Shifts in national budget priorities, changes in the quantum strategy, or a policy pivot toward alternative approaches (e.g., photonic quantum computing, which USTC's Pan Jianwei group pursues) could materially affect revenue.
  • Error correction gap: The company has not demonstrated credible progress toward fault-tolerant quantum computing or below-threshold error correction. As the industry increasingly bifurcates between NISQ-era systems (limited commercial utility) and fault-tolerant systems (where transformative applications lie), Origin Quantum's competitive position in the long term depends on closing this gap.
  • IPO execution risk: A planned domestic Chinese A-share IPO faces regulatory uncertainty, volatile Chinese equity market conditions, and the challenge of convincing public market investors of quantum computing's commercial timeline — risks that have affected Western quantum public companies severely (RGTI, IONQ, QBTS all experienced major valuation volatility).
  • International market access constraints: The same geopolitical dynamics that protect Origin Quantum's domestic market also limit its international expansion. The Hong Kong partnership and the claimed export sale suggest ambitions beyond China, but Western governments are increasingly scrutinizing Chinese quantum technology engagement, potentially restricting market access in the largest non-Chinese markets.
  • Talent and R&D intensity: Sustaining a full-stack quantum program — hardware, fabrication, control electronics, software, cloud — requires exceptional and scarce talent across multiple disciplines simultaneously, creating organizational scaling risk as the company grows.

Key Opportunities

  • China domestic quantum market growth: China's national quantum strategy involves substantial multi-year state investment in quantum computing infrastructure across defense, finance, energy, and research sectors. As the designated national champion, Origin Quantum is positioned to capture a disproportionate share of this spending, which is likely to grow as policy priorities and budgets increase.
  • Export hardware sales: The May 2026 claimed Wukong-180 export sale, if it represents a repeatable commercial channel, opens a meaningful new revenue stream. Markets in Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and Global South countries where U.S. export control scrutiny is lower represent plausible near-term targets for Chinese quantum hardware exports.
  • Quantum-AI hybrid positioning: China's intense national investment in AI infrastructure creates an opportunity for Origin Quantum to position Wukong systems as AI-adjacent computing resources. The Origin Brain platform is explicitly pursuing this. Even if the quantum-AI integration is currently superficial, association with AI procurement cycles could accelerate government and enterprise sales.
  • M&C electronics as independent business: Origin Quantum's proprietary measurement-and-control electronics stack has commercial value independent of its quantum processors. As global quantum hardware installations grow, the M&C market — currently dominated by Zurich Instruments and Keysight — represents an addressable opportunity for a domestically competitive Chinese supplier serving the large Chinese quantum research community.
  • IPO and capital markets: A successful domestic IPO would provide substantial capital for accelerated hardware scaling, fabrication capacity, and international market development, while also providing a public market valuation benchmark and liquidity for existing investors — potentially catalyzing further institutional investment.
  • Full-stack differentiation for enterprise customers: As quantum computing moves toward practical applications, enterprise customers increasingly need turnkey solutions rather than bare hardware. Origin Quantum's full-stack integration from hardware through cloud API positions it to offer managed quantum computing services, potentially commanding premium pricing over hardware-only competitors.
  • Fault-tolerant transition: If Origin Quantum can translate its hardware scaling trajectory into credible error correction progress — either through independent development or research partnerships with USTC's broader quantum research community — it could narrow the gap with Google and IBM on the metric that will ultimately define commercial quantum utility.

Investment Considerations

⚑ GroundState Take

The bull case for Origin Quantum centers on its structural dominance of the world's second-largest economy's quantum computing market, backed by what amounts to sovereign support. China's quantum investment is not cyclical venture funding — it is a multi-decade national strategic commitment, and Origin Quantum is the primary commercial beneficiary. The company's full-stack vertical integration is genuinely differentiated: it does not depend on any foreign supplier for critical components, which provides both supply chain resilience and margin potential. The Wukong-180 launch, claimed export sale, and Hong Kong partnership in a single month (May 2026) suggest accelerating commercial execution. An IPO, when it comes, would likely attract strong domestic institutional and retail demand driven by national sentiment around quantum technology leadership, potentially at a premium to Western quantum company valuations. If the company can demonstrate credible progress toward error correction over the next 24-36 months, it could emerge as a genuine global contender in the fault-tolerant era with a manufacturing and distribution infrastructure that Western competitors cannot easily replicate in China.

The bear case is equally serious. Origin Quantum's core vulnerability is that qubit count is not qubit quality, and the complete absence of independent performance benchmarks for its flagship systems is a red flag that cannot be resolved by press releases or state media coverage. IBM and Google are not standing still: Google's Willow processor demonstrated below-threshold quantum error correction in late 2024, and IBM's roadmap targets fault-tolerant systems within this decade with published, verifiable milestones. If Origin Quantum's hardware quality lags meaningfully — as the absence of published benchmarks may suggest — then its 180-qubit system may be significantly less capable than comparable Western systems, limiting its commercial utility for applications that require both qubit count and quality. Outside China, geopolitical headwinds will constrain its addressable market severely. Western quantum companies that listed via SPAC — Rigetti, IonQ, D-Wave, QBTS — have been extraordinarily volatile and have broadly destroyed public market value; Origin Quantum's IPO would enter a market with that track record as the reference class. Sophisticated investors should treat the absence of published technical benchmarks as a primary due diligence requirement before any capital commitment.

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